


Clown Flower

by honebami



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Choking, Established Relationship, M/M, Neck trauma, domestic AU, nb ouma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 00:31:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11771703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honebami/pseuds/honebami
Summary: [ implied ndrv3 spoilers ]Shuuichi touches Kokichi's neck.





	Clown Flower

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading !! this is a domestic future au like orange rose tea is - they re around 20-21 here !

"G'morning..." groaned Shuuichi as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He blinked them open at the sight of Kokichi with their hair fluffed up in a mess and a round crimson nose.

"Good morning, my beloved Shuuichi!" crooned Kokichi in their usual too-early-in-the-morning cheer. They dashed over to him, stopped on their heels, popped a flash of red against Shuuichi's face, and honked the foam of their nose against his. "Clown kiss!"

Shuuichi held a hand to the clown nose stuck on him as Kokichi giggled and flapped their hands. "I'm glad to see you're having fun," he said, and stifled back a yawn.

"I'm always having fun!" Kokichi's voice sunk into a dramatically-low tone. "Today, I have realized my destiny of running off to the circus." They dropped to one knee. "Though we must part, wilt thou still love me, your toxic clown?"

Shuuichi sighed with a smile. "Of course. I love you, Kokichi. Even if you ran off to the circus, it'd be my job to come after you, wouldn't it?" He helped Kokichi up. "I-I'd join the circus if it meant I could still be with you. As someone backstage, though."

Kokichi's cheeks flushed to match their nose. They butted their head against his chest. "Shuu-i-chii! You're too earnest!" They rubbed their face against him. "You're gonna be my clownderling for life now, you know!"

Shuuichi chuckled and wrapped his arms around them. It wasn't quite natural for him to be so affectionate, but to see how Kokichi would react, to brush fingers through petal shields and tease out their pulse; it was their duty as a detective to find the truth, after all- or maybe Kokichi was just a terrible influence. "Is that a... clown underling?"

"Yup! My secret organization is-" they paused, "-was a group of clowns, you know!" They put their hands on their hips. "So, you and I can restart the clown uprising!"

"Well, fine by me, but I'd rather be your- your..." Clown husband, he wanted to say, but 'clusband' didn't sound like much of anything, and 'clownband' only brought to mind a band of clowns, a family of clowns; whichever way he went only flooded him with thoughts of Kokichi draped in white, Kokichi linking promises with him in an empty chapel of those they had left, of tiny clown hands grasping around Kokichi's silver-laced finger, Kokichi staring down at their child with the love and wonder for life that burst from their skin. It was all Shuuichi could manage to press his hand over the swoon of his skin and hold himself steady against the wall.

"My what? Your face is getting all red." Kokichi swooped in closer and booped his nose. "What sort of suspicious thing are you thinking about, I wonder?"

"N-Nothing! Never mind." He wasn't ready to allude to the idea of marriage; not yet, anyway, and even just that thought shot a fresh wash of heat through him. He turned away and filed cups into the dishwasher with fumbling hands.

"That's booring!" whined Kokichi, who had hauled themself up on the table and was kicking their legs back and forth. They tapped a finger to their chin. "Let me guess... Were you thinking about being a lion tamer and whipping me? Kinky. But you can do whatever you want to me, so I guess that’s fine!"

Shuuichi crashed the mug he'd been holding into the top rack and swung around. "Kokichi, I don't," he caught his breath, "I don't want to hurt you. Ever." Kokichi blinked back at him with the oh-so-familiar empty face of a guard shaken. Fingers curled in Shuuichi's throat. It had been years, yet Kokichi still punished themself, still opened with a cautious disbelief that their own boyfriend wouldn't want to hurt them. He bit back the question of why they lied about things he knew they're not at all okay with. They both understood the traced ring of lie-shapes that lay under their skin, yet it still stung under Shuuichi's tongue when it bud upward.

Kokichi swung themself off the table and swerved around Shuuichi to prepare their tea. "Geez, I was just kidding!" They hummed Circus through a smile like pressed flowers as they shuffled and clinked spoons and milk and too many sugar cubes. They plopped themself down onto the couch, popped off their clown nose, and tucked a lock of frizz-puffed hair behind their ear before closing their eyes and slurping at their tea.

"Kokichi, can I, uh..." Shuuichi fumbled through a drawer. "Comb your hair?" He pulled out a curled-round plastic purple comb adorned with a fading-off image of a squirrel and the phrase ‘now you see me, soon you won’t’ dashed across it in black italics. It reminded him of Kokichi, somehow.

Kokichi grinned up from their cup and made a noise of affirmation. They shuffled around to give Shuuichi access. He sat beside them and held their hair in his palm. The teeth of the comb ran against the skin of his palm and dripped their hair into strings of ink. The anemone blur of purple and black pulled Shuuichi back to when Kokichi's hair sprung violent purple at the tips. It lay softer now, weighed down by its length, the purple having long drained from their hair as their masks of malice did. The back of his hand brushed against Kokichi's neck.

Kokichi stiffened. The porcelain teacup clinked against the saucer.

"Kokichi?"

They didn't respond. Shuuichi took the shaken teacup aside, sat before them, and held their rabbit-stiff hands in his own. Kokichi stared wide-eyed, their mouth parted, their fingers arched and cracking in his.

"Kokichi, y-you're gonna be okay," Shuuichi breathed as he smoothed their hands. "I'm right here. I-It's over. We're safe." Kokichi managed to push their eyes on him. "Look at me... Take a deep breath."

Slowly, gently, Kokichi's breath fell into pace with his like a feather to the ground.

"Are you okay...?" he whispered as he closed his hands over theirs. "Do you want some water? Or a-a blanket?"

Kokichi stared down at their hands. They locked hard eyes with Shuuichi for but a moment, as if to give a silent warning, before jerking Shuuichi's hands up and clasping them over their neck.

"W-What are you-"

Shuuichi tried to pull away, but Kokichi pressed Shuuichi's fingers deep into their neck. Their heartbeat rammed against his skin. Kokichi's jaw trembled, and their eyes crushed together, trying- failing- to hold contact. A tear leaked from their eye.

Shuuichi pushed against Kokichi's chest with his foot and tore his hands away before Kokichi could readjust their grip. They stared up at him with their eyes wide and their mouth gasping. Shuuichi wiped his eyes with nail-bitten hands.

"D-Don't, why would you," he managed to stammer out, "Kokichi, I-"

He knew what Kokichi was like when they fell into a bad space, he knew he had to stay calm to help, but the pressure of Kokichi's skin and breath pushing back against his hands kept running under his fingertips. He choked back a sob.

Kokichi trembled and stared down at their hands, still clawed in front of their chest. "S-Shuuichi, I..."

Tears and a hissing pressure pushed up under Shuuichi's skin. Kokichi didn't continue.

"C-Can I," Shuuichi started, "hold you?"

Kokichi dipped their head down, as if unsure of their own functions, and just as slowly raised it upward. Shuuichi guided Kokichi into his arms with the lightest of touches. He ran his hands over their ice-stiff back, down, down, slowly, softly, and ghosted his lips over their forehead before pressing a faerie-light kiss to their crown.

Kokichi grasped their hands around his back and buried their face into his neck. They shivered and melted into his arms. "Why are you..." they whispered, salt-wet lips against his skin, "so gentle?"

Shuuichi kissed their head. "Kokichi... I love you." Kokichi squeezed him tighter. "And I- I don't want- you shouldn't have to," he sniffed, "t-to, feel like you need to be hurt anymore."

Something wet drained down Shuuichi's neck. "I-" Kokichi managed, their voice creaky, "I'm sorry, Shuuichi. If it was you, I..."

They pulled back from him. Their face was scrunched and wet with sweat and their eyes were bloomed red and snot dripped into the bow of their lips, and they were the most beautiful person Shuuichi's ever known.

"Can I... kiss you?" they breathed out.

Shuuichi nodded and brushed his lips against theirs. Kokichi shuddered against him and kissed back, lips salted and snotted between his. They ran their thumbs down the heat in Shuuichi's cheeks and traced their fingers through his hair. He held their small frame tighter against him.

Kokichi pulled back to breathe, and wiped the spit of their mouth and the mess of their eyes dry. "I love you," they said, "and I still- I'm still- I still can't..." They sighed and dashed their eyes to the ground. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Shuuichi stroked a hand over their face. "Thank you." Kokichi nodded down. 'For being honest' lay unspoken, for shining that light was still too bright for them, would still snap their jaws over their pearl. "It's okay. Things aren't easy for either of us. But we're working through them together." He fumbled for Kokichi's fallen foam nose and lightly set it back on. "You're my clown king after all, right?"

The nose fell off. Kokichi coughed up a small laugh. "I get that you're trying to be all gentle, but it won't stay on if you don't use a little force."

Shuuichi fumbled. "S-Sorry."

They picked the nose up before Shuuichi could and squished it upon him. "But that's my beloved Shuuichi! I wouldn't have you any other way." They pulled him over them. "That's a lie, though. I like you any way you come. And you know where else it's okay to use a little more force?"

Kokichi didn't give him time to respond before once again pressing their lips against his.


End file.
